Just finished getting caught up on Zero-One. Started with ep 7 on July 31st, just finished ep 43 tonight. It's a pretty good show! The competition arc sucks massively, and it's a shame that it took so long given them loosing 5 episodes to Covid, but I'm sure if they knew they would only have 45 episodes they wouldn't have spent so long on it. Everything after that arc is great though. The dreams stuff with Fuwa, Yua and Naki is reminiscent of the really good parts of Faiz, and though it's a shame Naki hasn't done much since then, it's still pretty cool we got a first non-binary Rider. The Ark arc has been fantastic as well. Raiden and Naki's morals seem to be weirdly inconsistent, but Horobi and Jin have been extremely well written and acted. The twist of Ark being destroyed before the finale and Aruto becoming the new final boss was crazy. I don't think anything like that's ever happened in the franchise before. And for him to kill a major heroic character like Jin, his friend even, was so messed up. Even worse than Sento killing Aoba back in Build. I'm excited and terrified to see what these last two episodes will be like, because at this point it feels like anything could happen!

That's one for the obscure realization thread, I didn't even notice Naki was non-binary and now it seems so obvious! I'm pretty sure Pobol Y Cwm has done it before all the other UK soap operas too!

Quiz is a singularity point, easy.

Episode 36 of Hibiki. I like how we’re giving screen time to the other characters now, with a bit of expansion for Akira, who was rather forgettable beforehand. We get the story of her having lost her parents to the Makamou, which is simple and works with or without expansion. Also, Kiriya calling her out for not taking the ONI gig seriously… I can see why people don’t like him, but he’s got a point. The show has established being an ONI as a full time commitment, which really means she’s basically trying break away from the same thing she’s trying to enter.

Also, the lady in the Arashi Armour who turns into a lute ONI who Zanki calls “Sensei”. It’s saying something that she has to steal in order to he shin, but I’ll have to wait to see what.

Kamen Rider Kikai has one of my favorite designs ever, and he didn't even get a Rider Time special. I wanna cry.

Geiz Revive happened, and we learn that White Woz is hiding quite a bit. Shocking, if not for the fact that his smug ass did a horrible job at making it seem like he was on the up and up.

And Rider Time Ryuki turned Raia into a back stabbing bastard. Why you gotta do my boy like that?

It's written by Inoue. Raia turned from the only other straight up heroic Rider into a Rider that does things only worst Rider does (feeding people to Evildiver, something the likes of Scissors and Ouja did).

I was excited by the prospect of Ryuki getting a second outing with the mini series, but honestly, that was pretty bad. Like, only Ohja really felt like he was written normally, which isn't surprising considering a character like Ohja is literally all Inuoe knows how to write.

The explanation for it tying into Zi-O and Another Ryuki is so flimsy it's borderline nonexistent, Odin is a waste of a character again, everyone was so weak they tended to die to one or two attacks (I know they only had 3 episodes to work with, but at that point, why not just have only a handful return?) and they completely ruined Ryuki's dynamic by changing Raia's personality and not having Kitaoka be Zolda (I know he probably died of his disease, but still)

Like, at this point, why even make a Ryuki special?

Anyway, further into Zi-O, Blade's bittersweet ending got changed into a happy ending. I'm on the fence because on the one hand, Kenzaki deserved it, on the other, it made no sense because Hajime isn't a human turned Joker, but a born Joker that disguises as a human.
Whatever, Zi-O regards it's own continuity with contempt, so I guess another shows' continuity is low on the priority list.

Oh my god, Zi-O, it was right there.
Ginga is powered by the sunlight, Another Kiva was briefly working with the team. Have Another Kiva perform the Darkness Moon Break, turning day into night, then have everyone perform their finishers on the weakened Ginga.
My god, how did you miss that easy set up?

https://i.imgur.com/PRLGCVe.png

Long, Long ago, 20th century.....

This... turned out to be a pretty fun show. It's not entirely to my tastes, and not exactly what I was looking for as a good Rider show to watch as an alternative to what we have right now; but what was there was more than entertaining. If you've been reading any of my posts on this you'll have seen I had a pretty high opinion of it; if in humour if nothing else!

I think first of all I want to say that the characters were unfortunately kinda disappointing. Kotaro is an okay, inoffensive lead; but he just doesn't have any depth to him and at many points his powers of luck and deduction are so superhuman that it's at once hard to relate and impossible not to laugh. Like, in the first movie he sees a bus of schoolchildren and INSTANTLY deduces it's a Golgom plot. Multi-Eye's just a lot more powerful than is let on I guess! Kotaro aside, the other two leads in Kyoko and Katsumi... well, I just had to look up their names right now because otherwise I'd fail to tell you anything about them! I think this is an era-specific thing of the roles female characters were allowed to have, but either way they end up more as props than characters; just constantly moping over other characters' situations or laughing with Kotarou. We never really get any insight into what they're like beyond their relation to Kotarou and Nobuhiko and it's really a waste of 52 episodes -- the most they impacted the series is when they weren't there in the last few! They're once again inoffensive, but I won't be too surprised if I forget their names again two minutes after posting this. At least they didn't die for cheap character drama, at least?

The character dynamic that truly shines through though is Shadow Moon. He's very simple and we get just about nothing on Nobuhiko, but I felt it was just enough to make the tragedy here clear -- just having to come to terms with the fact that someone you once loved so much and considered so close is now that far gone. Shadow Moon displays nothing but the absolute smallest, subtle signs of any attachment to his past self and it's a horror to watch! He's so much more machine than man he makes Vader blush and it's just tearing up our main cast with each passing episode. He kinda dilly dallies with the same old plots as the High Priests for his first few episodes which wasn't a great first impression, but once they're past that stage Shadow Moon truly gets to establish himself as a threat. It's not hard to see why he's so revered.

Talking of villains, yeah, gonna re-iterate my past posts and say this is where Black really shined. The High Priests were and remain my favourite characters on the show for how simultaneously intimidating and enormously stupid they are -- it's a very delicate balance making me laugh at their plans to sow chaos through one kid before making me scared for Kamen Rider's life as they hunt him down without mercy. Darom, Baroam and Bishium made this season and it wouldn't be half as good without them!
Birugenia... was definitely a mid-season boss. I'd never heard of him before and it was obvious to see why -- he had very little to him and was just conjured up as a way to raise stakes until Shadow Moon could get here. But the most interesting thing he ever did for the show at the end of the day was make the priests more desperate rather than being intriguing on his own. He wanted to be Century King and he died to the Century King. Oh well.
Finally, we got the human element -- one that I feel was sorely underutilised! At the beginning we're introduced to Professor Karasuma, and... uh, a politician and a millionaire I can't remember the names of. Sagata and Kyo-something, I think? Either way it was a very good way of establishing the true power of Golgom -- they weren't just unthinkably powerful creatures; they had their hands in society in the fields of science, of politics and of the richest. But then this just sort of... fizzled out! Karasuma dies surprisingly early on but I guess they just couldn't afford that Shin Hayata money anymore, and then the politician and the millionaire got I think all of a single episode each until their return in Episode 38, where they set up a political party... which also never appears again! It's once again another waste of potential, but I at least appreciate what they brought to the show to begin with.

Where Black really shined though was in some of its individual episodes. I've gone on at length about Episode 27 treating its audience with enough respect and raising the stakes so much for our main hero to show the lengths he'd go to for even a single child; but other highlights include Episode 12's Road Sector introduction showing the fear of a man and his child on the run, or all the Whale Mutant stuff towards the end, or Episode 13 just stuffing in so much goofy stuff in one episode because Kotaro can't deal with the fact that he couldn't beat a crab with one punch!

It really is the parts of Kamen Rider Black you have to admire more than the whole, and if that's up your alley it's a hell of a series. It's one I certainly don't regret watching and I had a heck of a time with it, and while it probably won't be any time soon; I'm excited to see what I think of RX!

Ah, I see you're giving Kurona a special sneak preview of RX's change in tone. :p

But yeah, BLACK is a show that has some strong points and some weak points. I didn't go in expecting anything more than a series of episodic plots about Kamen Rider fighting monsters and saving people, and that's very much what I got. Everything beyond that was essentially gravy, which is why I don't think it bothered me that, for instance, Koutarou was literally the only character in it I ever formed any real attachment to.

There was maybe some unrealized potential for BLACK to be a more major leap forward for the franchise than it was in terms of writing, but as a back-to-basics reminder of why people fell in love with it in the first place, I think it's first-rate.

I also still like RX better, but that's a story for another time, I guess.

I mean, they could do that, I suppose. But wouldn’t it have been even better if they’d just smacked him with a manhole cover?

That would've been fucking hilarious.

But nawh. "Let's hit him hard...Together" and Ginga is gingone.

Anyway, Kabuto episodes were cool. Kagami becoming Kabuto was cool. Yagaruma getting shit on one final time goes beyond the limits of space and time.
Den-O episodes were okay. It was funny to see the uncle literally get hijacked into fixing the Den-Liner...Makes me wonder where the Owner was during all this if he literally allowed the Imagin to dick around the the train hard enough to crash it.

Started Blade just last week. Already on Episode 4. I dig it so far. Not really sure where it's going for a couple characters in the long run, but I am intrigued.

Another Zi-O II looks so much better than Another Zi-O. Definitely rocks the machine monster look a lot better.

That said, I do wish more of the Another Riders had solid design choices. Another Kabuto being a Worm and Another Double being two bodies side to side? Love it.
Another Build and Another Ex-Aid just being monster boys? Not too keen on that.

The thing I remember most about pink seashell man is that at some point he started wearing white face-paint all the time, and while I'm sure that was a retcon of the character's design, I prefer to think he actively started wearing that make-up to show that he was more serious now.

The Another Riders all take elements from their basis’ series’ monster aesthetic. Another Build has a rather crude appearance, similar to a Smash and Another Ex-Aid technically fill the “video game chara bought to love” idea by virtue of Ex-Aid being modelled after the eponymous Mighty of Mighty Action X.

But yeah, it’s not that clear unless you really look closely. It took someone 33 episodes to start noticing similarities.

Not really, or even a little. Another Build is crude, but they all are, and if the Smash had any unifying visual gimmick, it's that they were kinda geometric.

Some of them might take cues or gimmicks from their show's monsters to drive home the point of being a twisted version of that, like Another Ex-Aid spreading the bugster virus, but there are just as many examples where the premise is as simple as 'this rider but scary-looking'.

I like the Another Rider designs because they all kinda look like SIC designs on crack.

I just wish they had a more cohesive design choice.
Smashes have a very clean design aesthetic, where Another Build is just Build, but monster.
Like, maybe Another Ex-Aid could have emphasized the fact that he has two heads, perhaps be half transformed in between Level 1 and 2 or whatever?

I just felt too many of the Another Riders were designed going in the wrong direction. Wizard has a jewel motif, so why does Another Wizard have a skull motif, for example?

They really do.
I'm honestly curious about how an SIC Another Drive would look.
Especially when you consider that his right eye literally features someone's screaming mouth pressed against the crushed windshield :lol

Hell, SIC could have a field day with most of the Another Riders

Okay, I started Zero-One finally, and watched the first 4 episodes! Very intriguing so far, though we are still very much in the part of the show where we get things established and shill a bunch of transformation items. I'm a total sucker for AI and singularity stuff, so this is right up my alley. I think what surprises me most so far is that I actually really like Aruto so far, terrible humour and all. He's really quite a sweet guy. I mean, I know the show is going to emotionally crucify him one way or the other, but still.

I put watching Zero One on hiatus some time ago despite enjoying it (didn't even mind the apparently divisive tournament arc), because I had wanted to watch some of the older KR shows and would prefer to get back to it once it's finished. Really itching to get back to it now though.

Anyway, I watched Ryuki Rider Time to wrap up on my several month-long Ryuki viewing (despite not having watched Zi-O beforehand... it worked out pretty well tho, I wasn't confused that much and it's pretty easy to just ignore the Zi-O stuff).

It's... ah, where to start!? Between the super awkward mix of the old cast and new cast (the latter I couldn't care less about), the most awfully convenient amnesiac plotline I've ever seen, and yet again another plot about some dude who went wildin' to bring his girl back to life, I really can't say I enjoy this one. Even the usual Shinji/Ren bromance felt rehashed, and this overall feels like lazy nostalgia bait that may actually kinda work if I didn't literally just rewatch the entire series beforehand and basked on how awesome it was.

At the very least, it's pretty nice to see some of the old actors returning and trying to replicate their old characters' mannerism (I'd say Asakura's actor was the one that succeeded the most). Also I like the ending/theme song I guess. As for the rest, I don't care, this thing ain't canon as far as I'm concerned :lol

I actually didn't mind the Rider Time Ryuki on the whole, even though there may have been some problems I just found it so cool to have new Ryuki after it being like 10 years since I saw it!

Aruto I don't mind when he's being serious and giving speeches and so on, he has grown on me, his voice did grate on me instantly though!

Finished Zi-O, including the films and Geiz Majesty. Still haven't watched all of Shinobi, but I'll get around to it.

Wow, that certainly was...A show. I really, really had a hard time getting into it because it just didn't click properly. Sougo finally seems to be growing up some, but then "Nawh I wanna be king again" the next episode. Geiz seems to have his sense of resolve, then suddenly "Oh yeah I'm supposed to be mean to Sougo." Tsukuyomi is consistent if only because she had so little to do in the first half that they couldn't really teeter back and forth on her. Woz is just a whole can of worms.

I can see where the criticism of Geiz being inconsistent comes from. Even marathoning the series, there are moments where Geiz just folds to one side or the other far too easily. Seriously, "I'm the one who will defeat him" can only be used as an excuse to stay on X's side so many times, bro...

Anyway, Sougo...Tendou says the world revolves around him, but for Sougo, it truly does. I am glad they did point out that it was Swartz's plan all along for Sougo to basically win, so I guess I can't complain too much, but some things happened far too conveniently, most notably in Another Zi-O's defeats basically hinging on Sougo getting more powers. Hell, what if Sougo couldn't defeat Another Ryuga? What was Swartz gonna do then?
Puppet masters with contingency plans on top of contingency plans tend to lead to the question of "How could you even lose?" then...

I'm particularly glad they dropped the amnesia/history wiping thing from the first half. Since it made for such confusing story telling that it honestly hurt my head. It was just such an awful idea requiring so many loops in logic that it muddled the story.

Anyway, one thing I did enjoy was the returning characters. Returning riders is always nice, but something that brought a much larger smile was the returning supporting cast. I never would've expected characters like Mana, Omuro, Amane, or Hina to come back. And even if we couldn't get the main rider, they still chose some great returning members like Todoroki, Kagami, and Jiro to help keep the show really feel like a big anniversary. It helped really enforce that it's more than just the suits that makes this franchise so great.

That said, some tributes were far better than others. Kuuga had no returning characters to my knowledge, which was disappointing. Ichijou would've been an awesome character to return. Hibiki only had Todoroki and Kiriya, which I wouldn't have minded except that Kiriya became Hibiki. That's not really how that works, and I still hate him. Double didn't even get a tribute aside from Accel showing up in the Geiz movie, and Drive's tribute was kind of shit, with only the Paradox Roidmude showing up (Though Mach does appear in the film, at least). I know it was cool that Jiro showed up, but the Kiva tribute was also lacking, with him having basically nothing to do with the plot beyond spouting some melodramatic love nonsense then giving him the Kiva ridewatch.

So much of Zi-O I felt was wasted potential. There were parts I liked, don't get me wrong, but ultimately, I felt myself watching it with only marginal interest.

A ridewatch gimmick for every main rider and some additional characters?
Only about 6 Armor Times are ever used (Maybe 10 including the Decade forms)
The idea of undocumented Riders from the future coming to the past?
Most of them have borderline no characterization (Shinobi does get his own 3 part miniseries, at least), and only exist for Woz power ups.
The endgame featuring worlds merging and timelines being erased?
Basically just bad guys being dicks before it's all undone, instead of anything substantial.
A time travel plot?
Den-O has no screen time and Decade is a main character.
Fuck you, Decade.

Honestly, that about sums up my thoughts on Zi-O.
Fuck you, Decade.

Well I'm probably the only person that disliked all 3 of Den-O,Decade AND W to some extent, but despite Zi-O having Decade in it more towards the end I did find it better executed in my book whereas Decade could come across as bad fanfiction on television. The ending admittedly did seem slightly anticlimatic though, not one of the worst but just seemed a bit flat for some reason and did they really have to all end up in school again?!

Oh man I finally have some free time! Maybe now I can finally start watching Ultraman Nexus!

>The official subs don't drop until November.

Oh... well uh... Back to Kamen Rider, I guess?

My recent stint with Fourze and Kurona's' latest watch of Black got me thinking; Am I just burnt out on modern Kamen Rider? Perhaps it's time to take a look back at a simpler time. A time known as the Showa Era.

As such, my next watch is going to be Kamen Rider Super-1! Just got done watching the first four episodes and I gotta say, I'm actually having alot of fun with it so far! I love the Hand Change gimmick, Kazuya's' actor is super cool, and points for the opening being a bit more involved than what Black RX'S' OP was.

I also like that Kazuya doesn't have a full grasp of his powers at first, and has to learn how to properly channel and control them, ontop of actually needing to take half a year to learn how to fight before taking on Dogma, considering he was a scientist and all. And most importantly, this show seems to know how to have fun with itself, which is a great plus.

Lastly, RIP Professor Henry, you were a cool dude who was really emotive with his hands. I'll miss you.

But Nexus is on Crunchyroll if you really want to watch it.

Hopefully you have access to better subs than I did. Because mine degenerated to google translate after 5 episodes, and after several weeks of ignoring the problem, I decided “screw it, I’m rewatching Gaoranger”.

Nice! I'd personally rather to continue to support TokuShoutsu though, so I'm willing to wait the extra month.

Dang. Well it remains to be seen. The batch I got apparently starts off being done by KitSubs and then later switches to XIG. No idea if that means anything.

If your willing to wait Bereke Scrubs are doing a scrub of Super-1 using HD Raws and a cleaned up XIG subs. They promised to release 4 episodes every Wednseday.

Oh dang, I might actually just do that. Thanks!

Trying to watch out W at the moment.

Well that's more than I could do, sorry again but I seem to be the only person that finds it quite unwatchable, 2007-10 was a bit of an off period for me in Kamen Rider anyway though apart from Kiva!

K-Kiva, huh? That’s a bold statement!

Personally, I am not sure I could ever survive rewatching it. I had an exceptionally poor reaction to it. Every toku fan is obligated to have the one Inoue show they like though!

LOL I was not expecting that to be a popular opinion! I suppose Kiva is still fairly different to those other 3 shows so it could just be a love-it-or-hate-it thing. I actually struggle to remember who was the head writer on a show or something, I think for me I either just know whether I like it or not within a relatively short space of time anyway. I have sat through the majority of shows since 2000 right till the end, it's just that on occasion I just don't see the point!

Started watching Kuuga way back when the official subs came out but only got about 3/5ths through before taking a break for a while to work on watching all of Clone Wars and Rebels before Mandalorian season 2. Got to a point where the friend who got me into the show asked if I could wait a few hours till he was off work so he could watch the season 4 finale with me, apparent it's one of his favorites. Anyway, took the time to watch some more Kuuga finally today. It continues to be a really good show, and completely unlike modern Rider in a very strong way. In episode 36, Godai doesn't henshin at all until about 30 seconds before the episode ends. The focus is on the characters and the mystery of the plot, not on brightly colored superheros beating each other up. The one problem is I'm having trouble remembering what was going on with the Grongi side of the plot, what the bat grongi and rose grongi were up to. If anyone could give me a reminder of what I should know by ep 37 I'd appreciate it.

I believe that Bat Grongi now is flying back and forth between Tokyo (where the show is taking place) and Nagano( where the Grongi were once buried and revived) looking for something. The police took notice of this and are trying to figure out what he's doing

Ok, cool, thank you. One other question. Should I know who this Baruba he's looking for is? Definitely sounds like a Grongi name, but I can't remember if it's one I'm supposed to have heard yet

Baruba is the name of the Rose woman.

Cool, thanks again. Pretty sure the rest of what's going on with the Grongi is supposed to be a mystery still, it was just those two things I was pretty sure I was already supposed to know. If there's anything I still can't figure out later that the show seems to expect me to already know I'll be back!